Write On, Wisconsin Officials Tell Students- And They Do

"Terry Wendall turned the channel on the television from his bed (He
had a remote control.) His bed was littered with magazines, food
wrappers and rumpled blankets. He comfortably laid within this pile of
garbage.

"Terry's mother, Wilma, appeared at the door with her husband,
Montgomery. She whispered to him.

"'Look at him. He's entranced by that box.' She began to whimper
'Oh, Monty, we have to stop this madness!' She let out a loud sob."

This is an excerpt from a story ranked as one of the best efforts of
11th-grade students in a recent statewide assessment of writing skills
in Wisconsin. The tests of writing ability, given last spring to 4,254
students in grades five, eight, and eleven, marked the first time that
Wisconsin education officials used writing samples to evaluate
students' mastery of written English.

In the past, state assessments of writing relied mainly on
multiple-choice tests of grammar and usage. In most states--about 40,
according to a survey conducted in 1979 by Wisconsin officials planning
the writing tests--officials still rely on multiple-choice tests to
gauge students' writing ability.

The scores on the writing tests, released last month, suggest that
some students lack important writing and organizational skills,
according to state officials. However, the scores also indicate that
between grades five and 11, students grew more skilled in both areas,
according to Russell Allen, supervisor of the Wisconsin Pupil
Assessment Program.

The tests, developed by a group of 100 Wisconsin educators, varied
for the different grade-levels. Fifth-graders and eighth-graders wrote
a story and a report about the moon; 11th-graders wrote a persuasive
essay and either a story or a letter of application for a job. Each
exercise was completed within one class period.

On one of the exercises--for fifth-graders and eighth-graders, it
was the report; for 11th-graders, the essay--students revised
their6work several days after the original effort.

In the story-writing exercise, in which students were shown a
photograph of a burning house and asked to write about it, about 53
percent of the fifth-graders, 68 percent of the eighth-graders, and 82
percent of the 11th-graders scored above the "bare or confusing
narrative" level.

To grade the exercises, trained readers, mostly English teachers or
graduate students, used two indices, which officials termed
"primary-trait scoring," and "holistic scoring." The cost to the state
was $3.28 per student, according to Mr. Allen.

Primary-trait scores, which could range from a low of one to a high
of four, were based on how well the writer fulfilled the assignment
rather than on his or her grasp of language. For example, if the
assignment asked that the writer give directions on how to get from one
location to another, and someone who followed the directions ended up
in the right place, then the writer succeeded.

The second method by which the samples were judged, holistic
scoring, compared the papers written by students in one grade
withel35lone another. Using scores that ranged from a low of one to a
high of eight, the graders selected "anchor" papers that represented
each of the eight levels of performance. (The quoted sample, which was
part of a story about a house fire, scored an eight.)

According to the primary-trait scores, students found it more
difficult to write a report about the moon than to create a narrative
about the burning house. Eleventh-graders had more trouble with the
persuasive essay than with the other exercise.

In the report exercise, students were given a list of facts about
the moon, and asked to organize them into a report.

About two-thirds of the fifth-graders received scores of one or two
on this exercise, indicating that their work was rated either "not a
narrative" or "a bare or confusing narrative" by the graders.

Eighth-graders, given the same exercise, scored higher: 56 percent
received a three or four, which means their writing was either "an
elaborate narrative," or "a fully elaborated narrative."

The 11th-graders did not write about the6moon, but instead were
directed to write an essay that would persuade the school board to make
a change to improve the school. About two-thirds of the students scored
three or four, both acceptable scores, according to state
officials.

Scores for the 11th-graders who wrote letters of application rather
than stories about the burning house tended to be at one end of the
grade scale or the other, according to state officials.

Many of those who received the lowest score on the letter did so
because they neglected to include a return address or a telephone
number where a potential employer could reach them. Those students
whose score was high, however, exceeded the requirement and gave the
imaginary employers extensive information about their qualifications
for the job.

In addition to providing test results to teachers and students,
state officials also conducted a study of the students' revision of the
report or the persuasive essay. Students in the fifth grade tended to
perceive revision as "recopying," Mr. Allen said, while students in the
eighth grade revised more, but the changes were mostly superficial.
Eleventh-graders revised the most, Mr. Allen said, but the result was
sometimes worse than the original piece.

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